30 best performing stocks in Canada over the past three years

And half of them aren't on the S&P/ TSX index

In the wake of repeated concerns over the lack of growth stocks available to investors on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the index that tracks it, the TMX Group has highlighted the 30 best performing companies over the past three years with the creation of the TSX30.

The list is composed of stocks that have returned at least 126 per cent to investors over the past three years based on their dividend-adjusted share price appreciation. Canopy Growth Corp. easily topped the list, having netted investors total returns of 1,823 per cent — more than double than the second-place Shopify Inc. at 883 per cent.

Cannabis stocks are well-represented on the TSX30 as Canopy and three others — Village Farms International Inc., Aphria Inc. and Neptune Wellness Solutions — each rank in the top 10. The mining sector, however, is by far the best-represented on the list with eight names. The TSX30 was created at a time when the S&P/TSX Composite Index is trading near all-time highs, having already surpassed former records multiple times in September. What appears to be a success story for the TSX on the surface loses its shine when investors dig deeper into the returns and find that the S&P/TSX has gained little more than 10 per cent since the highs it reached prior to the financial crisis. The index’s performance led to money managers criticizing a short supply of growth stocks, specifically those in the tech sector, on the index and one calling its returns “pathetic.” While the names in the TSX30 have clearly shown their growth potential over the past three years, the S&P/TSX did not fully benefit from their performance as more than half of the names on the list do not have a presence on the index.

Here’s a list of the top-performing Canadian companies over the past three years:

1. Canopy Growth Corp.

2. Shopify Inc.

3. Village Farms International Inc.

4. Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd.

5. Trilogy Metals Inc.

6. Aphria Inc.

7. Air Canada

8. Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc.

9. Ivanhoe Mines Ltd.

10. North American Construction Group Ltd.

11. Labrador Iron Ore Royalty Corp.

12. Ballard Power Systems Inc.

13. Pollard Banknote Ltd.

14. goeasy Ltd.

15. Anglo Pacific Group PLC

16. North American Palladium Ltd.

17. Gran Colombia Gold Corp.

18. Resverlogix Corp.

19. Wesdome Gold Mines Ltd.

20. Cargojet Inc.

21. The rate chb no logi es Inc.

22. Summit Industrial Income REIT

23. Constellation Software Inc.

24. Tucows Inc.

25. Great Canadian Gaming Corp.

26. CAE Inc.

27. Park Lawn Corp.

28. TerraVest Industries Inc.

29. BRP Inc.

30. Boyd Group Income Fund